Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Earl of Dorset, c. 1697

Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex, KG (24 January 1643 – 29 January 1706) was an English poet and courtier.

Early life

Sackville was born on 24 January 1643,

Restoration.[2]

Career

A medal by Lorenz Natter depicting Charles Sackville

During King Charles II's first Parliament, Sackville sat for East Grinstead in Sussex. He had no taste for politics, however, but won a reputation at Whitehall as a courtier and a wit.

He bore his share in the excesses for which Sir

Charles Sedley and Lord Rochester were notorious. In 1662, Sackville and his brother Edward, with three other gentlemen, were indicted for the robbery and murder of a tanner named Hoppy. The defence was that they were in pursuit of thieves, and mistook Hoppy for a highwayman. They appear to have been acquitted, for when, in 1663, Sedley was tried for a gross breach of public decency in Covent Garden, Sackville, who had been one of the offenders, was (according to Samuel Pepys) asked by the Lord Chief Justice "whether he had so soon forgot his deliverance at that time, and that it would have more become him to have been at his prayers begging God's forgiveness than now running into such courses again."[2][3]

Something in his character made his follies less obnoxious to the citizens than those of the other

rakes, for he was never altogether unpopular, and Rochester is said to have told Charles II that "he did not know how it was, my Lord Dorset might do anything, yet was never to blame". In 1665 he volunteered to serve under the Duke of York in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. His famous song, "To All You Ladies Now at Land", was written, according to Prior, on the night before the victory gained over foggy Opdam off Harwich (3 June 1665). Samuel Johnson, with the remark that seldom any splendid story is wholly true, said that the Earl of Orrery had told him it was only retouched on that occasion.[2]

In 1667, Pepys lamented that Sackville had lured

Charles Hart, a former lover, being her Charles the First), was sent on a "sleeveless errand" into France to be out of the way.[2] In 1678 he narrowly escaped death at the hands of the deranged Earl of Pembroke, with whom he was engaged in a lawsuit.[4]

Portrait of Sackville by Godfrey Kneller, 1694

His gaiety and wit secured the continued favour of Charles II, but did not especially recommend him to

Privy Counsellor, Lord Chamberlain (1689), and Knight of the Garter (1692). During William's absences between 1695 and 1698, Sackville was one of the Lords Justices of the Realm.[5] In 1699 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society[6]

He was a generous patron of men of letters. When

Congreve reported of him when he was dying that he slabbered more wit than other people had in their best health.[7]

Marriages

Lionel
(right) and Mary (left)

Sackville was three times married; he married his first wife

Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset and Mary Sackville (1689–1705). He fathered two illegitimate daughters, one named Mary Sackville (died 26 June 1714), and the other with actress Alice Lee, named Anne Lee Sackville (1667–1738). He died at Bath
in 1706.

Works

The fourth act of Pompey the Great, a tragedy translated out of French by certain persons of honour, is by Dorset. The satires for which Pope classed him with the masters in that kind seem to have been short lampoons, with the exception of A faithful catalogue of our most eminent ninnies (reprinted in Bibliotheca Curiosa, ed. Goldsmid, 1885). The Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscommon and Dorset, the Dukes of Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, &c., with Memoirs of their Lives (1731) is catalogued (No. 20841) by

H. G. Bohn in 1841. His poems are included in Anderson's and other collections of British poets.[7]

Portrayal in film

Sackville is portrayed by

The Libertine, an adaptation of Stephen Jeffreys' play of the same name, which depicts the Earl of Rochester and the orbit of the "Merry Gang
".

References

  1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    . Retrieved 23 December 2016. (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911, p. 433.
  3. ^ Pepys' Diary, p124
  4. ^ Kenyon, J.P. The Popish Plot Phoenix Press reissue 2000 p.306
  5. ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 433–434.
  6. ^ "Library and Archive catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 28 February 2012.[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 434.

Sources

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset
Parliament of England
Preceded by
Member of Parliament for East Grinstead
1661–1675
With: George Courthope
 Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Chamberlain
1689–1695 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Earl of Northumberland
 Lord Lieutenant of Sussex
jointly with The Earl of Dorset 1670–1677
1670–1688 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Sussex
1689–1706 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
jointly with The Marquess of Carmarthen
The Earl of Devonshire
1690–1691 		Succeeded by
Peerage of England
Preceded by Earl of Dorset
1677–1706 		Succeeded by
New creation Earl of Middlesex
1675–1706

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Sackville,_6th_Earl_of_Dorset&oldid=1145028189"